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Ministry of Magic Power Structure

I'm working on a plot bunny involving the Ministry and I need to get a clearer idea of how it's structured. I'm Amercian so I only have a basic idea of how the British system works, but I get the sense the Ministry in HP books is quite different.

I know that the Ministry has various departments and department heads with the Minister of Magic at the top. My first question is who would be considered the number two in such a situation? Is that the Senior Undersecretary? If not the Senior Undersecretary where does he/she and the Junior Undersecretary fit into the power structure? Do they have lots of powerful or little? Umbridge seemed to have alot, but that could have been unique.

Basically I trying to figure out which individuals hold the most power in the Ministry. My guess from the books is the Minister, the Senior Undersecretary, and the Heads of the the most powerful departments (Auror, Magical Law Enforcement, International Magical Cooperation), but I could be way off.

Next, I trying to figure out where Wizengamot fits into this whole situation. Obivously, its a court system with the Minister and heads of imprtant department serving on it, along with other witches and wizards. Does Wizengamot, in additon to trying people, also check the goverment in the sense that the US Supreme court does. Sorry to fall into American terms here, but could Wizengamot rule an excutive order of the Minister unconsitutional?

Finally, I trying to figure out how a new Minister of Magic is choosen, because I don't get any sense from the books that they are elected by the Wizarding Community at large and the best I could figure was that the were selected by Wizengamot.

Thanks for reading and any ideas on the Ministry would be greatly appreciated.

I think you're right about the chain of command, that's always the feel that I got from the books.

Does Wizengamot, in additon to trying people, also check the goverment in the sense that the US Supreme court does. Sorry to fall into American terms here, but could Wizengamot rule an excutive order of the Minister unconsitutional?

Hmm. I think they could, but I don't know how well it would work, because as you said, the Minister serves on the court, as well as loads of other top people. I feel like the minster has rather uncontrolled power. Look at Crouch (while he was never the actual minster, he passed lots of laws back in the first war)- he was never checked even though he was making a lot of changes in the Auror dept. that some would say kind of went against the grain.

But that's just my opinon, I feel that the wizengamot was used for other things than monitoring the government. I think that the Ministers would have had complete control, but of course, they could be sacked, like Fudge was in HBP.